My cute little sit-spot:)

 

I wanted to pick a spot that I knew was not too far of a walk on campus, so I chose to go to the creek by the Chapel. Surprisingly, I didn’t see anyone, nor did I hear anyone the whole time I was observing. I wanted to go down where we have our labs, but I figured I would become tired of seeing the same sight more than I would just for my sit-spot. It took me a long time to figure out which part of the creek I wanted to sit at (maybe 30 minutes of frantic walking back and forth, side to side). I finally decided to sit on a bench that was basically set up for me to sit and watch without moving it (maybe it was faith).

I sat down and began looking at everything and I began to realize not just how beautiful my spot was, but how many active things were going on within the water and outside of the water. There were insects, animals, and plant life surrounding the creek more so than our lab which was interesting to me. There were so many unusual plants all around me that I was almost overwhelmed with the view. For so much activity and life, the water was quite still which shocked me for some reason.

Enjoy my wonderful drawing!

The cloudy sky above my sit-spot.

I was facing north, and the air was cool with a slight breeze, but not hard enough for the mosquitos to go away. There were two distinct smells that were quite opposite. If I turned my head to the east, the breeze would blow the fresh scent of flowers, but if I turned my head west, all I could smell was mud and dirt. All around me there were so many insects flying around doing insect things, but the ones that I saw the most were ants, dragonflies, some sort of insect that seemed to walk on water, and a few lucky occasions of butterflies. The ants were digging around in the dirt, the dragon flies would fly high and then swoop down into the water, and the butterflies would fly around and land on the plants around the water (sadly not on me). The bugs that walked on water mostly stayed to themselves, and when another of its kind showed up, they seemed to either play or fight with each other (I could not tell). I also heard some birds flying before I even saw them fly over, I am curious as to why they make so much noise when they fly. For the longest time I didn’t see any crayfish, so I walked closer to the water and stepped on a rock and out they came. The cicadas drowned out any hope that I could have to hear much of any other noise around me, I felt almost as if I lost hearing when I got back to my room it was so quiet.

This was the only Crayfish that did not run away from me when I came to the water. If you look closely in the upper left corner, you can see the insect that walks on water.

The pretty leaves on the bush that I plan to observe this semester.

The plants are still so luscious and green, minus a few that have started to lose their leaves and others that have started to turn autumn colors. I was interested in the plants that were close to the creek, because it seemed as if all the “color” was close to the water. There were plants with yellow flowers, purple flowers, and even a plant that looked prickly. There was also a bush that looked like something I hadn’t seen before. This bush had pink, orange, and green leaves all combined together, which I thought was very neat. The prickly plant was not much to look at besides that the sprouts looked spikey, but I was too scared to touch the plant. The plant with the purple flowers almost looked like a flower that I have seen in the grass around campus, and I would really like to know what that flower/plant is called.

I was slightly disappointed but almost happy that it was cloudy out a) I was covered in a blanket to try and escape the bugs, so if the sun would’ve showed I would have been sweating to death. B) I feel like the sun makes anything look ten times prettier, and I thought my spot was pretty so I would love to see it in the sunlight. For my three things I decided on the plant with the purple flowers, the plant that looked prickly (one may never know if it is or not), and the bush with the pink, orange, and green leaves. I am excited to see how these plants react to the cool weather coming up in the semester.

 

I wanted to see what the cooler weather would do to this plant, and I also thought it was beautiful.

I was not sure if this was a weed or not, but it looks prickly and cool. I am also excited to see what the fall weather does.

 

The leaves I posted belong to this bush, I want to see what happens with this bus.